SocGen sells Tower Hill office to Hong Kong-listed property developer

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The bank is moving to Canary Wharf in the not too distant future (Source: Getty)

Hayley Kirton

Societe Generale has sold its Tower Hill premises to a Hong Kong-listed property developer, SRE Group.

The sale for around £84.5m in cash of the nine-storey office building and linked five-storey car park was formally agreed last Friday but was not reported until today.

According to the fine print of the deal, the sale of the building will complete at the end of September. SRE Group will then lease the property back to the French bank for just shy of £6m a year until March 2020, by which point SocGen should have moved into its new digs in Canary Wharf.

Rationalising its newest buy in a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, SRE Group wrote:

The property represents a rare opportunity for the company to acquire a 1.7 acre freehold property in a prime location in London with secured rental income in the medium term. The property also has significant potential for enhancement of value through refurbishment and/or redevelopment.

Therefore, the board considers that the acquisition provides a valuable business opportunity for the group to expand its property portfolio by including overseas property and is in line with the company's strategy to strengthen its overseas investment and asset outreach.